Growing up in Gotham
by Eric Border
Summary: Bruce is being spoiled, Jack is being abused. Bruce became a hero, Jack became a villain. Bruce became Batman, Jack became The Joker. This is how the heroes and villains were divided as they grew up in the same schools.
1. Welcome

**I'm still writing this story but I just wanted to post the first chapter to see if it's worth writing, so don't expect the chapters to be posted very often or soon. If you like it and I'll keep writing it.**

 **-Eric**

 **Monday – Age five – First day of Preschool**

It was the first day of preschool for Bruce Wayne, he was excited to meet other children. He never really spent much time with other kids because he had no siblings and his parents never took him out of the mansion that much.

He saw the school in the distance and the mass of cars out the front dropping off other kids. To his surprise none of the other kids had a limo like he did and they all wore cheaper looking cloths then his. All the kids stared at the limo in amazement and even some of the adults, by the time Bruce step out of the car everyone in the area was staring straight at him. He timidly waved to the people and they all went back to their own business of saying farewell to their own children. The first kid Bruce met was a small girl who was slightly shorter then he was and he held a smug look on his face when the black hair girl looked up at him "Hi, I'm Selina, what's your name?"

"Bruce," He replied and she smiled up at him.

Over time Bruce met more of the kids in his class, he met a boy named Harvey who seemed to be one of the richer kids like him. Another red headed girl name Pamela introduced herself. She and Selina got along well and then they met yet another girl named Rachel. Other kids came to school as well but they never bothered to introduce themselves. They talked out in front of the school and gradually all the cars were gone and only the students stood outside waiting to go into school. Suddenly they heard a loud bang from the parking lot that was caused by an old car that had pulled into the drop off. The car was rusted and small with a broken window on the passenger side, it also released a foul smelling smoke as it parked.

All of the kids turned to stare but it was not in amazement like when Bruce had pulled up but fear and disgust, most of the kids found the car intimidating and scary. The door of the car finally opened and a skinny boy was shoved out, the boy stood up slammed the door causing some of the glass to fall off the window "Fuck you too!" he yelled and the children around him gasped. The car immediately speed out of the lot almost hitting the gate and the boy was left standing alone, fuming. Bruce noticed that the boy's clothes were even more dirty and cheap then the other kids and this boy didn't smile as he walked into the school like the other kids did. His hair was brown and dishevelled, he wore shoes that looked older then the boy himself, a shirt that only covered one shoulder and the boy had bruises all over his face, mostly around his eyes. He began to walk into the school when Bruce called out to him "Hi, I'm Bruce, what's your name?!"

The boy didn't even crack a smile as he turned and approached the small group "Jack," the boy responded grimly.

"Why is your face all bruised?" Selina spoke up.

Jack just grunted and walked into the school building "I don't like him, he should be more happy," Pamela whined. Just then the bell went and they all walked to class together with their brand new bags that looked way too big for the small children carrying them. When they got there they saw most of the children had found their seats and they saw Jack in the corner on a table all by himself with his feet resting on the chair across from him.

Jack glared at the group as they approached him and it caused them to sit down at their own table. He also tried to ward off another girl who came to the table but she pulled out the chair causing his feet to fall and sat across from him anyway "Hi, I'm Harleen," she greeted.

"Jack," he replied continuing to glare at her.

"Nice to meet you," she said smiling sweetly at him.

"Can you sit somewhere else?"

"Why?" she frowned.

"I don't like other kids," he stated simply and she slowly stood up and went to sit next to Pamela and Jack released the breath he had been holding and relaxed once more, enjoying his solitude.

The teacher came into the classroom and the amount of energy she had disgusted Jack, she was so damn happy and was treating them all like babies but the other kids in the class seemed to beam at her so Jack just ignored her energy and decided not to cause a scene in the first five minutes "My name is Miss Leland and I'll going to be your teacher this year," she said happily, _duh_ Jack thought as he watched her with a blank expression "Are you excited to start school?"

All the kids with the acceptance of Jack said "Yes!" cheerfully and it made Jack want to be sick.

"Well let's go around the class so we can introduce ourselves!" she said "After we say our name we'll say what we want to be when we're older! Starting with this young man!"

"My names Harvey Dent and I want to be the president."

"That's a great! Let's keep going."

"My names Pamela and I want to be a scientist."

"My name is Harleen Francis Quinzel and I want to be a gymnast."

"My name is Bruce Wayne and I'm going to run Wayne industries or become a doctor."

The list went on and on and Jack lost interest and began to stare out the window near his table until suddenly he heard Miss Leland say "And what about you?"

He turned to see the whole class looking at him expectantly and pointed to himself and the teacher nodded "My names Jack."

"Jack what?"

"Just Jack."

"O…k and what do you want to be when you're older?"

"I want to be a comedian," Jack responded and the other kids laughed at him.

Miss Leland frowned "Oh uh why don't you think of something…better?"

"You asked me what I wanted to be…and now you're telling what not to be?" Jack retorted grumpily.

Miss Leland was quiet "Why don't we just move onto some mini games?" she said quickly tearing her stare away from the boy.

Later the kids were leaving the class after maths class to go to lunch but Miss Leland pulled Jack away from the other students and held up the maths quiz he had filled in during class "Why haven't you answered the questions on your sheet?" she asked.

"I didn't want to," he responded simply.

"All you've done is drawn on it," she stated and he nodded. She finally decided that this was getting nowhere and let him go to lunch but Jack only sat in front of the classroom waiting for the next class to start. Miss Leland frowned and walked out of the classroom to kneel in front of the boy "Don't you have any lunch?" she asked and Jack shook his head "Why not?" she pressed and Jack just shrugged. She sighed, she didn't want to bring it up but she was worried "Where did you get those bruises?"

"I fell down the stairs at home," he responded quietly.

"You got a black eye from falling down the stairs?" she asked sceptically, he nodded "Do your parents hurt you?"

"No, I love my parents," he stated but it lacked sincerity and emotion.

"Did your parents hit you?" she pressed and Jack shook his head before standing and slipping past her to walk away down the corridor with Miss Leland staring after him.

When he got to the playground outside he found the other kids playing chasey and Bruce ran up to him and shoved him in the chest but Jack barely moved "You're it!" he yelled running away but Jack just decided to sit down against the wall of the school "Come on, Jack!" the others encouraged but he ignored them.

"If Jack's not playing you're it!" Selina yelled to Bruce and they began playing again but Harleen decided to go over to see if he was ok.

"Don't Harley! You'll get boy cooties!" Pamela yelled but she continued towards him.

"Are you ok?" she asked sitting down next to him. All she got in returned was a grunt as he turned away from her "You don't like people that much do you?"

"No."

"Do you at least like you're mummy and daddy?"

"No."

"But everyone loves their mummy and daddy," she protested.

"You're wrong"

"Am not."

"Are so."

"Am not!"

"Are so."

" _Am not!"_ she yelled increasing in volume and pitch each time.

"Harley you're it!" Harvey yelled tapping Harleen on the shoulder and ran off. Harleen glared at Jack before sprinting off after Harvey.

After school Bruce had soccer practice that his parents had signed him up for, after he went to the drop off and called his butler Alfred on his phone to come pick him up. After a few minutes of waiting he spotted Jack sitting at the other end of the drop off. He was the only other kid left. Bruce stood up and began to walk towards him but the old car from earlier parked in front of Jack before he got there. A man got out of the car and there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat. The man appeared to be swaying unsteadily as he walked towards his son "School ended two hours ago," Jack said grumpily.

Suddenly the man stuck him across the head causing him to fall to the floor "Just be grateful you get to go to school at all, you littl' runt!" the man scolded before pulling Jack off the ground by his t shirt and shoving him into the back of their car before driving away.

Bruce waited in silent horror until Alfred arrived in the limo and he continued to stay quiet all the way home and went straight to his room once they arrived. Alfred went to find Thomas Wayne to express his concerns about Bruce's behaviour "Master Thomas?" he called poking his head into the office.

"Yes Alfred?" Thomas asked looking up from his work.

"I'm slightly concerned about Master Bruce, sir."

"Why?" Thomas pressed putting down his work to focus more on the situation.

"He hasn't said a thing since I picked him up."

"I'll go talk to him," he said walking out the room to leave Alfred to tidy up his desk. Once he got to his sons room he saw him sitting at his desk doing a maths sheet on addition. He sat down on the bed and sighed "What's wrong Bruce, did you not have a good first day?"

"I did but…" Bruce trailed off as tears formed in his eyes.

"What happened?" Thomas asked lifting his son onto his lap as the tears began to fall.

"Daddy…today I saw a boy get hit by his daddy," he whimpered.

Thomas was silent "What was the boy's name?"

"Jack."

"What was his whole name?"

"I don't know."

"Ok," Thomas sighed "Why don't we go get some ice cream from down stairs?" Thomas offered and Bruce nodded taking his father's hand to be led downstairs and he completely forgot about what he saw happen to Jack.


	2. Dead but living

**-Please read-**

 **This chapter is not for sensitive readers and the reason I boosted the rating to 'M', read at your own risk, skip if you need to, nothing significant in this chapter, just an introduction to Jack quality of life.**

 **Monday night – Jack's house**

Jack's home was an average size two story house that always had people coming in and out. His father dealt drugs so people were always coming and going with packages of whatever was popular at the time, right now it was weed so there were bags of it all over the house in draws, cupboards, boxes and Jack once found a package in the mattress of one of the beds. His mother was a prostitute and his dad got the money, his dad also had other girls who hung around the house and had no problem taking them for a 'test run' as he called it. There were quite a few children who lived in the house but Jack knew that only one of them was his sibling, his sister Karol, she was only three so one of the older children took care of her and the other children. All of the children were the results of 'customers' not using anything to stop conceiving none of the parents really care for them. Few of the children went to school because in the eyes of Jack's father and his partners, it was only worthwhile sending the males to school while the girls were brought up to do house chores. _Sexist pigs._

He walked in the front door and was immediately hit by the strong scent of alcohol, smoke, drugs and sex. Five steps through the door one of his father's friends came up to him and handed him a wad of money "Here go grab us some more booze, 'kay kid?"

"Yes, sir," Jack accepted, as if he had a choice.

He took the money, went back out the door and began the long walk to the liquor store. He had to walk through the narrows and into the city to get to the nearest one, he usually was the one to do it because the men in the house would be too smashed to walk let alone drive.

Once at the store he grabbed a shopping cart and filled it with all the cheap booze he could find, it never really mattered what kind it was as long as it was alcohol. By the time he was finished the cart was filled to the top with bottles and glasses. The man at the counter recognised the boy and went through the long chore of scanning all of the items, then Jack paid and left with the cashier giving him a look of pity as he rolled the cart out the store turning it around the corners as best as he possibly could with his three foot tall body. Getting home wasn't dangerous because all of the thieves, thugs and muggers knew him to be Joseph Napier's son and messing with his stuff was a death wish. Jack would jump onto the back of the cart and roll down the level paths to make things easier but never cracked a smile as he rolled bumpily down the street back to his house.

When he got home he opened the garage door and rolled the cart in, which he had taken from the store to get the booze back without making ten million trips. In the garage there were two couches that were old, the dog had bitten into them and pulled the stuffing out in certain places and the floor was dirty, mostly because it was never cleaned. He rolled over to the dozen fridges in the room that weren't used just used to cool food and drinks. He began to put away the bottles which were also being taken into the house over time by the still thirsty drunks including his dad. Once he had finished, half of the booze was in the fridge and the other half had been taken into the house. Jack began to enter the house to find the man who had given him the money but when he found him he was passed out on the floor of the kitchen, which also hadn't been cleaned in forever, so he pocketed the money for himself. The man probably wouldn't even remember giving him the money in the morning.

Jack walked up the stairs careful to not give any eye contact to the people he passed and ignored the sounds of pleasure from the rooms he passed.

He arrived at the room the children slept in and there were currently about ten kids in the house, some slept on sleeping bags, others slept on old beds and few slept on the floor with nothing but a blanket around them. Jack was one of the unfortunate to sleep on the floor next to the makeshift cot for Karol that was a crate with a small blanket in it.

Jack sat down on the thin blanket he had and looked through the windows, which had no glass what so ever, and saw it was almost night time so he laid down with his head on the hard wood floor and drifted off to sleep despite the sounds of women and drunken men around him and the cold air that came through the windows.

He was awoken by the feeling of someone grabbing him by the hair and lifting him off his feet. He looked up to see it was his father "I heard you stole money from John last night!" the man growled, Jack assumed he was referring to the man who had passed out on the floor. Jack reluctantly nodded his head and was thrown across the room and hit the wall with a bang that woke the other children. The others just watched in fear and pretended nothing was happening like they had all been taught to do "Will you do it again?" Joseph yelled and Jack shook his head to which it was greeted by a punch to the face. He heard crack and immediately knew it was his nose breaking under the pressure of the man's burly fist, it wasn't the first time it happened.

After his father dropped him and left the room Jack glanced out the window again to see the sun only just peaking over the horizon and decided that there might be just enough time to walk to and visit Gotham General before walking to school. There was no way he was getting in a car when his father was in this sort of mood. He snuck downstairs and thankfully most of the men were either asleep, passed out or occupied. Jack left with the money still in his pocket which he supposed he would be punished for later and began the tiring trip to the hospital.

Being beaten by his father always made him feel empty, it made him feel like no one cared and he knew no one was there to help. He felt like he was dead but he was still alive somehow.


	3. Smile

**Tuesday morning – Bruce's House**

Bruce sat at the dining table eating a fancy breakfast of boiled eggs, bacon, sausage and toast. His father sat across from him reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee and his mother was in the living room reading while Alfred cleaned the kitchen. His father looked up from the paper "Bruce I'm going to come to your school today," he said.

Bruce lit up with joy "Really?!"

"Yes and I need you to point out this boy named Jack for me, ok?" Thomas asked.

"Oh…yeah, ok," he replied slightly disappointed that his father was only coming to school because another boy.

"Bruce, even if you don't like it, we have an obligation to help those struggling and in need. We are extremely fortunate people and Jack one of the less fortunate," his father explained.

"Why do we have to help him, he could just get help from his butler," Bruce grumbled.

"Jack most likely doesn't have a butler."

Bruce looked horrified "But everyone has a butler!" he protested.

"Most people don't, Bruce. You need to understand that people aren't as rich as we are. Some people may not have any money at all," Thomas reasoned but Bruce just turned away and refused to believe it.

"Sir, it is time for Bruce to leave for school," Alfred reminded.

"Thank you Alfred, could you please go get Bruce's bag."

Alfred walked off to retrieve the bag from his young master's room and they were soon on their way to Bruce's school. Once they arrived, Bruce and Thomas exited the limo and all of the people's stares turned to Thomas and not Bruce this time. The women gave him seductive looks and the kids looked up at him in amazement, the men tried to ignore him and turned their wives away from him. Thomas Wayne was considered the most handsome man in Gotham, they said 'women want him and men want to be him' and Thomas was in no position to deny it. Once they walked through the gates of the school, Thomas leaned over to his son "Do you see him?" he asked and Bruce shook his head.

"Sometimes he goes to class when he gets here, he doesn't like the other kids," Bruce explained and they went to his classroom.

When they were about to enter the classroom Miss Leland came out and almost ran into Thomas "Oh uh…Hi, you must be Mr Wayne," she greeted and shook his hand.

"Yes," he said with a charming smile "Is Jack inside?"

"Jack?" Miss Leland asked momentarily distracted by Thomas's smile "Oh Jack! Yeah he's in there. I found him outside the school at six in the morning, I think he must have at least been there since four."

"Well that's…peculiar," he stated frowning "Can I go talk to him?"

"Sure but he won't even talk to me about what happened," she sighed.

"About what happened?" he asked confused.

"You'll see," she murmured and walked off to go to the teacher's lounge.

They both walked into the classroom and Thomas saw a boy sitting in the corner of the classroom. He was sitting alone staring at the top of the table, he sat across from him "Hey, you're Jack right?" Jack nodded "I'm Thomas, Bruce's father."

Jack looked up and Thomas looked shocked at the boy's purple swollen, bloody nose "Why are you here?"

"Bruce told me he saw your father hit you," Thomas said.

"My dad doesn't hit me."

"Then can you explain what my son saw?"

Jack grabbed a piece of paper and a colored pencil from the middle of the table and began scribbling something on the paper. Once he finished he passed it to Thomas and walked out the room and eventually out the building. Thomas sat still staring after the boy and turn to the piece of paper Jack had folded and placed in his hand. He opened it and read 'they'd hurt me if I told anyone'. Thomas longed to help the small boy but he knew you cannot help someone who refuses help. He hugged Bruce goodbye before getting back into their limo and driving away with Bruce staring after him.

Bruce had a relatively normal day afterwards until he went out to lunch to see a gathering of children, who weren't playing, in the middle of the playground. He climbed onto the playground to get a higher view of what was happening. He saw Jack standing in the middle of the circle glaring up at a third grader "Hey, clown boy," the third grader teased and shoved Jack back into the audience of children.

Some more boys stood behind the third grader and called out to Jack as he began to push out of the crowd "Hey! We're talking to you!"

Jack continued to run and Bruce saw the third graders begin to sprint after him until they rounded the corner and he could no longer see them anymore. Meanwhile Harleen was racing after the teacher to tell her what was happening to Jack. Jack seemed to be a magnet for trouble.

"Miss Leland! Miss Leland!" Harleen yelled when she burst into the classroom.

"What's wrong, Harleen?" Miss Leland asked calmly.

"There were some older…boys on the playground and they started…teasing Jack, calling him 'clown boy' and then they…started chasing him" she replied between sobs.

"Ok, do you know where he is?" she asked, Harleen shook her head.

Miss Leland and Harleen looked around everywhere for the boys, other kids watched on in excitement at the unusual occurrence. Other teachers had been notified to keep their eye out for the young boy but other than that, it seemed business as usual.

The bell went and the students and teachers walked back to their classrooms, almost completely forgetting about Jack. They were all quietly drawing for art class when they all heard the door of the classroom slam open and turned to see Jack standing in the door with his head hung low. He shuffled through the classroom and plopped himself down into his chair in the back classroom. The room was silent for a moment before returning to their projects.

Miss Leland crouched down next to Jack and spoke gently "Show me your face," but he kept his head down "Come on, Jack, its ok," she pressed.

He looked up at her and she gasped, his left eye was swollen shut, bruises were peppered all over his face and his lip was split, mixing with the blood that ran from his nose down to his chest. This would have been what made Leland gasp but it was the massive grin on the five year olds face that startled her.

"You stay here ok?" she said and quickly shuffled over to her dress and called the schools front office "I need a student to be picked up from my class immediately," she whispered into the phone.


End file.
